Ascent was a minimalist iOS app for Christians who wanted to build intentional spiritual habits through self-designed ascetic challenges.^1 Created by Greg Gilbert — a dad, writer, and Solutions Architect at EFS, a Christian non-profit based in Sweden — Ascent was built in a month as a personal project to learn Swift.^2
The concept was simple but focused: choose a duration, select the Christian ascetic practices you want to commit to (fasting, prayer routines, silence, service, etc.), and track your journey. No accounts, no cloud sync, no data collection — everything stayed on your device.^1 The clean, distraction-free design kept the focus on the practices themselves rather than gamification or social features.
Ascent was available for free on iOS from August 2023 until it was removed from the App Store in August 2025.^3 During its time on the store, it earned a perfect 5-star rating from its reviewers.^3 The app is no longer available for download, though the landing page remains live.
Greg continues to build faith-oriented tools through his company Nerdy Makers AB — he also created Prayer.page, a communal prayer engine that streams classic prayers (the Lord's Prayer, the Jesus Prayer, the Hail Mary) in real-time so believers can pray together from anywhere.^4
Note: This app has been discontinued and is no longer available for download.
